In a move I find pleasantly surprising, Hillary Clinton has formed a “whip team” to keep her supporters in line during the convention- allaying my fear that Hillary’s supporters will become the spectacle in Denver.
In an unusual move, Hillary Clinton’s staff is creating a 40-member “whip team” at the Denver Democratic convention to ensure that her supporters don’t engage in embarrassing anti-Obama demonstrations during the floor vote on her nomination, according to people familiar with the planning.
It seems that President Mikhail Saakashvili of the Republic of Georgia is so freaked out by the military strategy of Russian President Putin Medvedev in his own stomping grounds that he’s actually hungered by it…
“The boy had been pranking around in the garden having a competition with his cousin, when they were breaking wind and lighting it. Right behind him was a petrol can and that just flashed.
I think he must have won the competition but he will have some nasty burns now”
The Human Rights Council at the United Nations has now banned any criticism regarding Sharia Law and human rights in the Islamic World
According to President Doru Romulus Costea – and following the efforts of delegates from Egypt, Pakistan and Iran – the Council will no longer tolerate criticism of either Sharia or specific fatwas in the name of human rights.
In many parts of the Islamic world, it is becomingly increasing clear not only that the Koran (the written record of the original oral transmissions of Mohammad’s life teachings) and the Hadith (the later delineations of those teachings) are considered sacrosanct in their perfection, but also the various implementations of these teachings, known as Sharia Law.
No evolution or refinements are required. No matter that nearly every multitudinous Muslim sect or group has a differing interpretation of this God-given Sharia Law. Nor that the stoning to death of women, beheading of men, and all the 6th century niceties of feudal Arabia are still part and parcel of the immovable Islamic tradition. Never mind that Sunni will decimate Shia – and vice versa – over differences of interpretations far more modest than those between (modern) Catholics and Protestants, between Hindus and Buddhists. Islamic sect can war on Islamic sect, Arab can criticize Arab.
If this is real, then there are going to be some serious issues if/when a Muslim country becomes a world power. The way I see it, is Islam in that area is simply “behind.” There isn’t anything specific to Islam that is particularly evil or backwards- it’s just that they haven’t learned to moderate the way Judaism and Christianity has. Anyway, scary stuff.
So, it seems like the Chinese did cheat in the gymnastics competition….
It’s a piece by piece inquiry of Chinese official documents that convinces me that she is 14 and that China has been actively deleting evidence to the contrary. Does it matter? In the abstract, a 14 year old competing at the Olympics is more impressive than a 16 year old- but rules are rules. They apply to everyone, and attempts to circumvent them and actively lie about it are pretty pathetic.
In an indication that he expects to be Barack Obama’s vice-presidential pick, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del) has begun writing a 50,000-word acceptance speech, aides to the senator confirmed today.
The address, which Mr. Biden has been working on around the clock, is an abridged version of a 200,000-word acceptance speech that Mr. Biden wrote when he ran for President in 1988.
If Biden is the choice, any thoughts? Apparently he can be a bulldog- and unfortunately, Obama needs one right now to combat the mud-slinging out of the re-tooled Rove-esque McCain campaign.
BEIJING — Two elderly Chinese women have been sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor” after they repeatedly sought a permit to demonstrate in one of the official Olympic protest areas, according to family members and human rights advocates.
The women, Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, had made five visits to the police this month in an effort to get permission to protest what they contended was inadequate compensation for the demolition of their homes in Beijing.
During their final visit on Monday, public security officials informed them that they had been given administrative sentences for “disturbing the public order,” according to Li Xuehui, Ms. Wu’s son.
Isn’t it funny how re-education in communist always means labor? If this is the case, close all the schools and just have people breaking up rocks all day. The rest of the article starts after the jump…
Though we did our best in Connecticut to unseat the guy during his last re-election campaign (he was defeated in the primary by Ned Lamont, but won as an Independent), the totally uninspiring Joe Lieberman will be giving what promises to be the most boring speech in modern memory at the Republican Convention. Apparently, the “independent” tag is still an asset even if the reason he is considered one is because he broke from his party to support the worst foreign policy decision in decades. Way to go.
I don’t ask it as a factual question- because there is no doubt that he indeed was- but a definitional one. Andrew Sullivan asks precisely that question in a post on his Atlantic blog.
In all the discussion of John McCain’s recently recovered memory of a religious epiphany in Vietnam, one thing has been missing. The torture that was deployed against McCain emerges in all the various accounts. It involved sleep deprivation, the withholding of medical treatment, stress positions, long-time standing, and beating. Sound familiar?
According to the Bush administration’s definition of torture, McCain was therefore not tortured.
No war crimes were committed against McCain. And the techniques used are, according to the president, tools to extract accurate information. And so the false confessions that McCain was forced to make were, according to the logic of the Bush administration, as accurate as the “intelligence” we have procured from “interrogating” terror suspects. Feel safer?
The full post is here and it concerned more with criticizing the Bush administration’s despicable definitions of torture than with McCain- but it does give mention to McCain’s support of the very methods used against himself in Vietnam.
1) Mets staged a rare late inning comeback against the Braves while the Yanks were pleased to have Johnny Damon and his butterfingers back on the field.
2) Though not really related to McCain’s candidacy (or fitness as president), Cindy McCain apparently has another overlooked half-sister to whom Cindy never refers. In fact, Cindy inherited tens of millions of dollars (helping John purchase their seven homes) while this mystery woman got $10,000. Nice.
3) Big news: the Knight Rider car is going to be on Staten Island today. Take off from work and take a peak.
4) Obama has begun to respond to McCain’s respectable, “issues only” campaign ads…. so now we have to suffer through a decidedly negative campaign cycle because a desperate McCain sought to slime Obama’s “celebrity”- and how attractive he is to young blonds.
Short post today, have some errands to run. Will update further later in the morning. Also, the Men’s 200m track final is today at 10:20am- those of you who saw Usain Bolt basically jog to a WR in the 100m should know that he is considered a 200m runner, not a 100m runner. Scary.
